Indicator system



April '22, 1930. w. WQVVLLARD 1,755,975 l INDICATR SYSTEM Filved oct.19, 1927' l lnventomf l 'JD waldowwillavd,

bg Mfg 1;-,

man@ i fon-:r

Patented Apr. 22, 1930 murans'iaras iasssis "PATENT fori-ica .l

waLno W. wi'LLARD,

OF SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, ACORPORATION OF NEW YORK iiviircaionl SYSTEM 'v Application-filed October19, 1927. ,Serial No; 227,323. i

, v My invention relates to position `indicator vsystems for guns, moreparticularly to a position indicator system for a. combination `gun andrremotely situated controlling sighti v 5 ing instrument, and has for itsobject the provision of a s imple, accurate and reliable system :forindicating. they position of the gun withrelationI to 'both the sightinginstru- Ament and the'gun support. 'i' f r10 -My invention hasparticular application in systems of gun fire control, such as used onbattleships, in which the gun is controlled inaccordanceiwiththemove'inents of a remotely situated sightinginstrument. In one g5 of its aspects my'invention'relates to the nroi'.eslitlzlistalionioriinmtmg h lz1 Sienna .them Uiiuiiit. reatinutnts".ting i133?. .umQDitdaalsdvthepositionilglln 'with'relation to'thelshipli in carrying out my invention in one form,

I provide an electrical transmitting device which is driven by thesighting 'instrument and; asecondV motionv transmitting Vdevice ,sI,which is driven by the-gun through suitable parallax corrective means,whereby the'angula-'r movements of the gunare referred to thetelescope;A 'lhese -two transmitting instruments areelegriafliyconieltenlf'dilieren i notion receivinof instr u .n JLM ternnivee conro' s agiow Y'lireby when the @annemarie fheaneiaiemsaaeaieindicates"ro. t il A .l l' 3f eceiving instrument inthe inter-mediate sta.-

, tion which is driven ina 1 1 ratio by the gun and indicatesthe'angular position of the gun withi'relation to its support. f r

For-amore completeunderstanding of my invention referenceyshould be had.to the accompanying drawing in which Fig. vlis a diagrammaticrepresentation of anfindicating system embodying my invention; Fig. 2isa plan vview showliigzhe indi iating mmbers; Fi fais-ag.simQW'` eviewowvipgz e p a alla; mechanismiwhile igyfis a diagrammaiiiw-illustrating the operation of the arallax mechanism. .l I

VReferring to the drawing, I have shown .59 my invention in one form inconnection with a remotely controlled gun fire control system, `f suchas used on battleships. Three guns 10, 11 and 12 are shown, which may bemounted `in separate turrets. These guns are controlled by a singlesighting instrument 13 55 which comprises a suitable sighting.device,"""' 'such as a telescope. It will be understood that theangular movements of the telescope in being brought to bear on thetarget are transmitted lto the gun by suitable transmitia tingmechanism, not shown, and there utilized 'j 'in the controlling. of theguns', whereby the guns are brought to bear on the target.,

l In accordance with my pre-sent invention,

I provide: indicating means in a central cone5v trol station 14wherebythe'actual positions of fthe guns and their relativepositions'with relation to the telescopevcanbe ascertained at anytimevAs shown= this indicating system `vcooperates with-the telescope andthegunsso ,7,0 as to be responsive to their y,angular movements in ahorizontal or train plane, although obviously :the system could beapplied tothe telescope` and gunsA in vertical or lelevation planes aswell.` An electrical motion trans- .f5 mitting instrument 15 isconnected through A Agears 16g and 17 so `as to be driven vby theytelescope in train.l Similar'electrical motion transmitting instrumentsare operatively connected to each gun or'gun turret, .for example, 80 bymeans of a gear18 meshing with the turret. rack 19. Thesetransmittinginstruments are preferably oii'av type comprisingralsinglecircuit field winding and a cooperating polycircuit' arniaturewinding,.onev ofthe. two 85 .windings beingmounted ona vrotor` member. 'Thefield windings of the twovinstruinentsjar'e Venergized -romahcommonsouroe'o alternating current. As' shown the transmitting instrumentsare'driven at a suitable high 9 0 speed withrespect to the telescope'and the guns towhich they areconnected, suchlas Li the .intermediatestation 14e three electrical. differential receiving devices 20, 21 and95 22 are" provided. These instruments preferably cach consists of twopolycircuit armature windings, one of which is mounted on a rotormember. These polycircuit armature windings are similar to the armaturewindings 100 l the lines 24, 25 and 26 to the armature windings ofthetransmitters driven by fthe fgfuns'.' In the o aeration of.l the systemelectromotive forces are induced by the eld windings ofthe transmitters.in the armature windings of l these devices? yand .these electromotiveforces :are impressed upon the lwindings of the di flerentia'l receivers20, 21 and22 whereby mag- ;.netlic fields are .produced byeac'hfanmature Winding ,ofthereceivers andtherotor elem ent foi eachreceiver -is thereby caused byelectromagncticmepulsion yto turn to apositionin which the field ,produced bythe Winding :carr'ied lby the:rotor is in .the same direction as the'tield produced byits statorWindingfj'lhe 'Larma'ture `windings are fele ctr'ically connected- "insuch manner that rotation'of thetelescope and I.guns'inthesame'direction producesfopposite directions of rotation offthe'respective rotors vloi therci f sponsle o i u1 a vt ecop and.iegunsertaineatures-of tns, iteren- ,tlalrecelving device aredescribed'andclaim'ed in lfaten't No.' 1.

628,463' to Nervlett iard, dated May lo., 19,27;

f; In' orderthatthe rotors of ,thereceiving in .struments will fturn tothe same positions when the-three 'guns are pointing on A the sametarget, .suitable mechanism is interposed he tlweenthe driving gear 18andthe transmitter at each gun ffor introducingfa lparallair corlrection whereby the, angular movements of each gun are referred to thetelescope.V Re- `ferring to Eig. '3, a gear' 27 is secured on the.sanie'shaft as the driving gear 18 'and the gear27 meshes vWit-'hagrear'28 which isse'cured to .the rotor shaft of the` transmitting instrument29.. It will be understood that theinstrnment 129 is the one which hasits varmature windingconnected to .a rec'e`\. i ver l .29; 21' for .22as thefcase maybe. VThe'stator of the'itransmitter 29 isrotata'blymounted and has agear .1 BO- secured 'to vitby meansjof which it may berotated'. Thisgear 3 0 meshes ivitharack 31 ,secured teja rod 32 moving.in aguide, and this rod 32 is connected through 'a lever 'arni having-an adjustable `pivot 3 5 to. a parallel :rod 36 .movingwinf a :guide37. The opposite end of the rod 36 is Jrovided withja yokeBS with whichcooperates a pin 39 carried by a rgear 40. The rgearf() isgconnectedthrough gears 41, 42 and 43 tola gear lfgsecuredtothe .Same shaft' asthe drivinggear 18 whereby the gear 40 1s driven at a reduced speed'which is in a 1: 1 ratio with the movement of the gun or the gun turretrack 19.

The pivot 35 is movable in a guide 45 in a direction at right angles torods 32 and-86. This adjustment is made by means of a hand- -xvheel 16i'hich drives aiscrew shafft -17 fcooperating with a'nut secured to thepivo't. This adjustment of the pivot is made in accordance with thefrange, ra. 'suitable fcalibrafted rae -fdrumfS being provided wherebythe adjustment may be made with accuracy.

`TD1ie` operation of this parallax mechanism will be understood byreference to Fig?? which 'is'a diagrammatic representation of thebattlefield, thepositon ofthe "un being indicated 'by the point B, while't 1e 'sighting instrumentand targetpositions are designated bythe,points A andD, respectively.` It will be .noted that the distance ABIisi/fixed for any parucniargun, While'the distance Allwhich APis .therange, is, of c0urse,' variable. These distancesl may be indicated by`let-"ters 7i and r respectively. In'the dia-gram drop 'ajperpen-.dicularrompoint A to line BD, intersecdn'g angle i comme mawinlsabsgiiiiiian gaanailaxfanglewca-n lie'fintrodueed by :applying fanangular. -moyementvtogthe stator The gear '46, however, has fthe fsameangular movement 'as Fthat 'applied to fthe, :gun and therefore:gemerates the angle fqb `Wiliilethe :red

36 is Egiven `a movement rroportionirl Resin-g5.

The fdistance 'b is fined 55er any any parti-cular -gun andthe onlyother variable to `be introxduced :is there-5er the range m, which vas,previ- Dnsly 'noted is 'introduced'b'yfturniirgr the ligandV- Will-'heunderstood that with the ggiins mount fed in'dierent =turnets-nt:different distances from the sighting instrument, ,the scale. on the4range idr-uni 418 is Vcalibrated dior the-range adjustmentandalsoztoftak'cintoconsideration the particular distance -b foft'the gun'-romfthe ter' 29 when the-guns are pointn'ingcn'fhes'ame 'target Jas thetelescope Will therefor-*ehe the ing on a common target the arrows willbe in ,alignment-with each other. In the arrangement shown, the dialsare mounted one above each other iii-vertical alignment, and the arrows, under the conditions mentioned, each point upward. A. visualillusion is therefore made ofia continuous vertical line which line isobviouslymore .distinct than each individual arrow vby, itself, and,furthermore any slight deviation of one or more dials from the positionof alignment is very readily perceived. In other words, by means of thisar-'.

rangement the zero position and any deviation therefrom is much easierto see than it would be with the dia-ls mounted at some distance apartor with different zero positions.

I also provide a second transmitter 5 driven by each gun in a 1:1 ratloierewith. This transmitter has its rotor connected to the gear 41. Itsstator is rotatably mounted and is given a parallax adjustment from therod 32 by means of a wedge-shaped member 54 secured to the rod andpresenting anfinclined surface. The roller 55 carried by one end of abell crank 56 bears on this surface and the other end of the bell scrankis connected through a link 57 to one side of the stator of thetransmitter 53.' These transmitters 53 operated by the three guns areelectrically connecte-d to receiving instru ments 58, 59 and 60,respectively, in the in'- termediate station. The receiving instrumentsare similar in construction to the transmitting instruments and they.have their field windings energized from the same source of alternatingcurrent so that their rotors reproduce the movements applied to thetransmitters. They operate dials 61, 62 and 63, Fig. 3, which indicatethe actual positions of the guns withrespect to the ship, the moveother1:1 speed dials.

ments of the guns however being corrected for parallax so thatwhen theguns are all pointing on the same target the dials give the sameindication. Any inaccuracy such as might arise if the gun transmitter 29should lose a complete revolution of movement is avoided by observingthe relation of the corresponding 1: 1 speed dial with the To insurethat the guns are all pointing on the same target the 1:1 speed dials61, 62 and 63 should occupy corresponding positions with respect to eachother, and the 36:1 speed dials 50, 51 and 52 should have theirindicating marks in alinement as previously indicated. This condition isillustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawing. While I have described myinvention as embodied in 'concrete form and as operating in a specificmanner in accordance with the provisions' of the patent statutes, itshould be understood that I do' not limit my inven-l tion thereto since,various modifications thereof will suggestY themselves to those skilledin the art without departing from the spirit of my invention the scopeof which is set forth in the annexed claims.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is 1. The combination in a system of gun re control comprising asighting instrument and a plurality of guns controlled thereby, of anintermediate station, an indicating instrument in said stationcomprising a plurality of indicating members mounted for rotation aboutaxes spaced relatively with respect to each other, means for operatingsaid members in accordance with the relative movements of said sightinginstrument and said guns respectively whereby said members are returnedto zero positions when the guns and said sighting instrument aredirected on the same target, said indicating members being arranged tobe in alinement when in zero positions.

2. The combination in a system of gun fire control comprising a sightinginstrument and a plurality of guns controlled thereby, of anintermediate station, an indicating instrument in said stationcomprising a plurality of indicating members mounted for rotation aboutaxes spaced relatively with respect to each other so that saidmembers-are in alinement, electrical means for transmitting themovements of said sighting instrument and said guns, differential'driving means for each of said members connected jointly to thetransmitting means driven by 'said sighting instrument and thetransmitting means 'driven by one of said guns, whereby said members arereturned to zero positions when the guns and said sighting instrumentare directed on the same target, and elongated marks on said membersarranged to be in alinement when said members are in predeterminedpositions.

3. An indicator system for gun control means of the type consisting of aplurality of guns controlled from a remotely situated sightinginstrument, comprising electrical means for transmitting the movementsof said sighting instrument and said guns, a plurality of dials mountedfor rotation about axes spaced relatively so that said dials arein-alinement, electrical differential driving t.

means for each of said dials connected jointly to the transmitting meansdriven by said sighting instrument and the transmitting means driven byone of said guns whereby said dials are each returned to a zero pc 1i- 4www? tion when the gus are, Ifo'ntng 01.1 the samg 1 target as saidsighting mstrumsmt, andixadh Qatgiigfmarks exten across s ad dalsaimalks being arrange to be. in. alnement when said dials are in zampsitions., t 5, In, witnesswhereof, l have hereuntoLset my hand. this18th day 0f October, .192il 7 f f-WALDOW-WLLARDQ

